Nikon D810, 1/8 sec, f/9.0, 24mm, ISO 200

Here is sunrise at Chiricahua National Monument. The sun rises at your back as you overlook the rock pinnacles. As the sun rises, light walks down the ridge on the right side and into the valley of rock pinnacles. In this image, sunlight illuminates the brown part of the right hand ridge line while the rest of the image is in shadow.

This does create balanced light issues when half the rock pinnacles are in sunlight while the rest are in shadows. Once light reaches the top of the pinnacles you essentially have a period of time where it is hard to capture usable images until sunlight illuminates all of the pinnacles.

Chiricahua National Monument: 32.007286° -109.312335°

Nikon D810, 1 sec, f/18, 120mm, ISO 200

This image captures an area where the edge of a pinnacle field meets a tree covered slope. I do wish I had noticed the little pinnacle in the bottom right corner. I could have cropped it out completely, but I think it adds a little bit of contrast and balance to the image.

I just wish I had noticed it while composing this image. Drat…

Chiricahua National Monument: 32.007286° -109.312335°

Nikon D810, 1/20 sec, f/18, 120mm, ISO 200

The background sky in an image does not get much better than this! The wispy white clouds fill the entire frame not occupied by the rock pinnacles. Combined with the blue sky, this adds a nice silhouette background which highlights the ups and downs of the rock formations.

There are also two diagonals in the image: the pinnacles silhouetted against the blue sky and the shadows in the lower left third of the image. I am quite impressed with this image given it was captured at a random turnoff within the national monument.

Chiricahua National Monument: 32.007286° -109.312335°